A growing number of developing countries
have introduced conditional cash transfer programs that
provide money to poor families with certain contingencies
attached - such as requiring school attendance or regular
immunization and health check-ups. As the popularity of
conditional cash transfer programs has grown,
experimentation with potential applications in other areas
of health, such as sexual and reproductive health, and HIV
prevention, in particular, has also increased. Evaluations
of conditional cash transfer programs have focused almost
exclusively on uptake of health and educational services,
which make relatively low demands of participants compared
with more complex interventions, which require the cessation
of risky behaviors, such as smoking, obesity, and substance
abuse. The literature on contingency management - based on
the principle that behavioral change occurs when appropriate
behaviors are reinforced and rewarded - provides a richer
picture of the complexity of the use of conditionality to
encourage healthy behavioral change. This paper examines
developing countries' experiences with conditional cash
transfer programs and the results of trials in clinical
settings on the efficacy of contingency management, and
addresses their relevance for designing conditional cash
transfer programs to address risky sexual behavior and
promote the prevention of sexually transmitted infections
and HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa.